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Department and from the Midland Eailway, now in course of construction. (7.)«Manufactures —of which the chief are woollen (included in which are blankets of excellent quality at a low price), boots and shoes, biscuits, soap and candles, pottery, hardware, furniture, carriage-building, photography, flax-dressing machinery. Of the other Australian Colonies, Victoria and New South Wales have contributed most largely, the former by sending many manufacturing and agricultural exhibits, the latter by showing specimens of minerals, agriculture, and trade articles, and by lending a collection of pictures from the Art Society of Sydney. South Australia has sent little but her wines. The foreign nations are not largely represented, owing in a great measure to the shortness of the notice which the Commissioners were able to give them. The British court is very poor, but it is possible that more exhibits may yet arrive, which may have been delayed by the dock-labourers' strike in London. The other chief features of interest are the Native court; the fernery, composed of the native ferns for which the colony is so celebrated; the armament court, and the art-gallery. The Exhibition as a whole may be pronounced a great success. The exhibits are of the right kind, well selected and well arranged, and, although, of course, Otago has taken the leading part in organizing and supporting it, the Exhibition may well claim to be one of the colony and not of the province only. At the same time, it is open to question whether, if all the great centres of population had worked with equal zeal in this matter, an Exhibition might not have been obtained even more fully representative of the various products of the colony. The most noticeable feature connected with the Exhibition is the extent to which it has had to rely on the support of private individuals. Unlike other colonial Exhibitions, the amount contributed by the Government has been exceptionally small. They gave a grant of £10,000, on condition that a main building sufficient to house the Government Exhibition was erected at a cost of £5,000, and that the other £5,000 should be expended in the early history, Maori, mining, natural history, fishery, and South Sea Islands courts ; and that the capital of the Exhibition Company should be at least £15,000, of which half should be actually called tip. The Government also gave a grant of £2,500 towards the expenses of bringing out the British loan-collection, and the Commissioners expended a similar sum on the erection of a fire-proof building. In fact, as Mr. Eoberts, the President, said, at a banquet which he gave soon after the opening, " So far from saving any of that £10,000, we find we have actually, in carrying out the wishes of the Government, succeeded in expending £3,000 more than the £10,000." I have already shown your Lordship that, as an industrial and educational agent, the Exhibition has proved a marked success, and I am glad to be able to add that it shows every sign of a financial success also. The initial outlay was £40,000 ; the cost of weekly maintenance is about £300 ; the daily receipts are about £100; and the total receipts up to date are nearly £30,000: and Mr. Eoberts, a man of great caution, has piiblicly stated that he considers the final success of the Exhibition as already secured. The results attained are due to the efforts of the Commissioners, and especially of the President, Mr. Eoberts, and the Executive Commissioner, Mr. Twopeny, who have been ably seconded by the Manager, Mr. Joubert. Mr. Twopeny has applied to the work the experience of the management of other Exhibitions with which he has been connected —namely, Adelaide (1881), Perth (1881), and Christchurch (1882). Mr. Eoberts has not before been so connected, but by his excellent bixsiness qualities and his unsparing energy he has done more than any one etee to make the Exhibition the success which it is both generally and financially. I have, &c, The Eight Hon. Lord Knutsford, &c. ON SLOW,